Wednesday, September 20, 2017

washingtonexaminer | Rep. Dana Rohrabacher said someone leaked information about his call
this week with White House chief of staff John Kelly, possibly to
undermine his ability to speak directly with President Trump about
WikiLeaks.

The Republican congressman from California spoke with Kelly on
Wednesday regarding his recent meeting with WikiLeaks publisher Julian
Assange in London, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday evening, and broached a possible trade.

Rohrabacher
reportedly used the word "deal" in his conversation with Kelly and said
Assange would get a pardon or "something like that" in exchange for
information files on a data-storage device showing that Russia did not
hack Democratic emails that WikiLeaks published last year during the
2016 campaign.

"He would get nothing, obviously, if what he gave us was not proof," Rohrabacher told Kelly, according to the Journal.

Rohrabacher said after his August meeting with Assange that WikiLeaks
could disprove the conclusion of U.S. spy agencies that Russia was
responsible for hacking Democratic emails, and that he would seek a
meeting with Trump to discuss the information.

Rohrabacher told the Washington Examiner on Friday evening
that he would not confirm quotes attributed to him, and said nobody in
his office was responsible for disclosing the call.

"I have honored the confidentially of a very important
business-related call," he said, speculating that someone inside the
White House or within U.S. intelligence agencies leaked the call.

"I don't know who it is, all I know is I'm up against an array of
very powerful forces, including the intelligence services and major
newspapers that are basically allied with the liberal Left who have
every reason to undermine communication on this issue," he told the Washington Examiner.

"Look, there are very powerful forces at work," he added. "We've got
the NSA, the FBI and the CIA, all of whom confirmed a major lie that was
being used for political purposes and a lie that was repeated and
repeated in order to undercut our new president."

Rohrabacher said White House leaks to the press are particularly bad
during Republican presidencies, as staffers attempt to ingratiate
themselves with reporters, and he's not ruling that out as an
explanation.